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Should students drop out of school to start their businesses?

If you are beginning a startup business or aspiring to start one, chances are that you may be thinking of dropping out of school in order to jump start your enterprise. Indeed, you may be seduced by the success of Apple, Facebook and other tech giants that found their success after their founders dropped out of school to begin their businesses.

Indeed, it is extremely difficult to be a great entrepreneur and a great student at the same time, and there are a number of stories of entrepreneurs who don’t make it big. But for those who aspire to shorten their college experience, a recent Forbes article highlighted a few reasons why students should not take their college days for granted. We note a couple of them here.

Starting earlier doesn’t always translate to success – You may believe that you are losing ground on building your business by staying in school. However, starting earlier does not guarantee that you will be successful immediately after starting. There are many things that you will learn while in school that will help you as you build your business. So if you hear about students beginning their businesses out of their dorm rooms, it may be just a rarity.

College is still a good teacher – As we alluded to before, there are quite a few things that young entrepreneurs can learn through their classes, as well as the ties that they will have to alumni who can give them helpful advice as they build their business plans. After all, continued success in business is largely based on being a subject matter expert; knowledge that is gained in college.

Shulman Hodges & Bastian LLP represents clients in Orange County and throughout California, including Irvine, Riverside, Los Angeles, Anaheim, San Bernardino, Ontario, San Diego, Santa Barbara, San Francisco, Riverside County, San Bernardino County, Los Angeles County, San Diego County, Southern California and the Inland Empire.